News & Events

Cultural exchange

Posted on August 4, 2010

A group of Chinese high school students are learning about s'mores, hot-dogging on the court and other aspects of American culture as part of a pilot program to provide English language instruction to foreign students.

The program, which is being developed and managed by the Center for Global Education, reflects the college's growing involvement in global education.

The 33 high school students from Nanjing Normal High School in Shanghai are spending their mornings in English language instruction and American cultural education. The balance of their days are spent in more active forms of learning, from meeting and eating s'mores and learning to play basketball to field trips to Cape Cod, Boston and New York.(The global center has posted more photos.)

The students' introduction to America also included social time with their peers from nearby Norton High School. And as an article in the local Sun Chronicle pointed out, they were not the only ones doing the learning:

"It's given me the opportunity to learn about a culture I wouldn't have had a chance to learn about," Norton High senior Mike Gillis, 17, said of the program.

Norton High Principal Raymond Dewar said a lot of the Norton students there were attending a new YMCA/DARE camp for Norton, Attleboro and North Attleboro students. A few others were counselors at the camp.

"I want them to think more globally. I want them to be exposed to more cultures. I want them to reach out to other people," Dewar said.